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Installing a cluster using AWS Local Zones

In OpenShift Container Platform version 4.13, you can install a cluster on Amazon Web Services (AWS) into an existing VPC, extending workers to the edge of the Cloud Infrastructure using AWS Local Zones.

After you create an Amazon Web Service (AWS) Local Zone environment, and you deploy your cluster, you can use edge worker nodes to create user workloads in Local Zone subnets.

AWS Local Zones are a type of infrastructure that place Cloud Resources close to the metropolitan regions. For more information, see the AWS Local Zones Documentation.

OpenShift Container Platform can be installed in existing VPCs with Local Zone subnets. The Local Zone subnets can be used to extend the regular workers' nodes to the edge networks. The edge worker nodes are dedicated to running user workloads.

One way to create the VPC and subnets is to use the provided CloudFormation templates. You can modify the templates to customize your infrastructure or use the information that they contain to create AWS objects according to your company’s policies.

The steps for performing an installer-provisioned infrastructure installation are provided as an example only. Installing a cluster with VPC you provide requires knowledge of the cloud provider and the installation process of OpenShift Container Platform. The CloudFormation templates are provided to assist in completing these steps or to help model your own. You are also free to create the required resources through other methods; the templates are just an example.

Prerequisites

  • You reviewed details about the OpenShift Container Platform installation and update processes.

  • You read the documentation on selecting a cluster installation method and preparing it for users.

  • You configured an AWS account to host the cluster.

    If you have an AWS profile stored on your computer, it must not use a temporary session token that you generated while using a multi-factor authentication device. The cluster continues to use your current AWS credentials to create AWS resources for the entire life of the cluster, so you must use key-based, long-lived credentials. To generate appropriate keys, see Managing Access Keys for IAM Users in the AWS documentation. You can supply the keys when you run the installation program.

  • You noted the region and supported AWS Local Zones locations to create the network resources in.

  • You read the Features for each AWS Local Zones location.

  • You downloaded the AWS CLI and installed it on your computer. See Install the AWS CLI Using the Bundled Installer (Linux, macOS, or UNIX) in the AWS documentation.

  • If you use a firewall, you configured it to allow the sites that your cluster requires access to.

    Be sure to also review this site list if you are configuring a proxy.

  • If the cloud identity and access management (IAM) APIs are not accessible in your environment, or if you do not want to store an administrator-level credential secret in the kube-system namespace, you can manually create and maintain IAM credentials.

  • Add permission for the user who creates the cluster to modify the Local Zone group with ec2:ModifyAvailabilityZoneGroup. For example:

    An example of a permissive IAM policy to attach to a user or role
    {
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Action": [
        "ec2:ModifyAvailabilityZoneGroup"
      ],
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

Cluster limitations in AWS Local Zones

Some limitations exist when you attempt to deploy a cluster with a default installation configuration in Amazon Web Services (AWS) Local Zones.

The following list details limitations when deploying a cluster in AWS Local Zones:

  • The Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) between an Amazon EC2 instance in a Local Zone and an Amazon EC2 instance in the Region is 1300. This causes the cluster-wide network MTU to change according to the network plugin that is used on the deployment.

  • Network resources such as Network Load Balancer (NLB), Classic Load Balancer, and Network Address Translation (NAT) Gateways are not supported in AWS Local Zones.

  • For an OpenShift Container Platform cluster on AWS, the AWS Elastic Block Storage (EBS) gp3 type volume is the default for node volumes and the default for the storage class. This volume type is not globally available on Local Zone locations. By default, the nodes running in Local Zones are deployed with the gp2 EBS volume. The gp2-csi StorageClass must be set when creating workloads on Local Zone nodes.
Additional resources

Internet access for OpenShift Container Platform

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.13, you require access to the internet to install your cluster.

You must have internet access to:

  • Access OpenShift Cluster Manager Hybrid Cloud Console to download the installation program and perform subscription management. If the cluster has internet access and you do not disable Telemetry, that service automatically entitles your cluster.

  • Access Quay.io to obtain the packages that are required to install your cluster.

  • Obtain the packages that are required to perform cluster updates.

If your cluster cannot have direct internet access, you can perform a restricted network installation on some types of infrastructure that you provision. During that process, you download the required content and use it to populate a mirror registry with the installation packages. With some installation types, the environment that you install your cluster in will not require internet access. Before you update the cluster, you update the content of the mirror registry.

Obtaining an AWS Marketplace image

If you are deploying an OpenShift Container Platform cluster using an AWS Marketplace image, you must first subscribe through AWS. Subscribing to the offer provides you with the AMI ID that the installation program uses to deploy worker nodes.

Prerequisites

  • You have an AWS account to purchase the offer. This account does not have to be the same account that is used to install the cluster.

Procedure

  1. Complete the OpenShift Container Platform subscription from the AWS Marketplace.

  2. Record the AMI ID for your specific region. As part of the installation process, you must update the install-config.yaml file with this value before deploying the cluster.

Sample install-config.yaml file with AWS Marketplace worker nodes
apiVersion: v1
baseDomain: example.com
compute:
- hyperthreading: Enabled
  name: worker
  platform:
    aws:
      amiID: ami-06c4d345f7c207239 (1)
      type: m5.4xlarge
  replicas: 3
metadata:
  name: test-cluster
platform:
  aws:
    region: us-east-2 (2)
sshKey: ssh-ed25519 AAAA...
pullSecret: '{"auths": ...}'
1 The AMI ID from your AWS Marketplace subscription.
2 Your AMI ID is associated with a specific AWS region. When creating the installation configuration file, ensure that you select the same AWS region that you specified when configuring your subscription.

Creating a VPC that uses AWS Local Zones

You must create a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), and subnets for each Local Zone location, in Amazon Web Services (AWS) for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster to extend worker nodes to the edge locations. You can further customize the VPC to meet your requirements, including VPN, route tables, and add new Local Zone subnets that are not included at initial deployment.

You can use the provided CloudFormation template and a custom parameter file to create a stack of AWS resources that represent the VPC.

If you do not use the provided CloudFormation template to create your AWS infrastructure, you must review the provided information and manually create the infrastructure. If your cluster does not initialize correctly, you might have to contact Red Hat support with your installation logs.
Prerequisites

  • You configured an AWS account.

  • You added your AWS keys and region to your local AWS profile by running aws configure.

  • You opted in to the AWS Local Zones on your AWS account.

Procedure

  1. Create a JSON file that contains the parameter values that the template requires:

    [
  {
    "ParameterKey": "VpcCidr", (1)
    "ParameterValue": "10.0.0.0/16" (2)
  },
  {
    "ParameterKey": "AvailabilityZoneCount", (3)
    "ParameterValue": "3" (4)
  },
  {
    "ParameterKey": "SubnetBits", (5)
    "ParameterValue": "12" (6)
  }
]
    1 The CIDR block for the VPC.
    2 Specify a CIDR block in the format x.x.x.x/16-24.
    3 The number of availability zones to deploy the VPC in.
    4 Specify an integer between 1 and 3.
    5 The size of each subnet in each availability zone.
    6 Specify an integer between 5 and 13, where 5 is /27 and 13 is /19.

  2. Copy the template from the CloudFormation template for the VPC section of this topic and save it as a YAML file on your computer. This template describes the VPC that your cluster requires.

  3. Launch the CloudFormation template to create a stack of AWS resources that represent the VPC by running the following command:

    You must enter the command on a single line.

    		 
    $ aws cloudformation create-stack --stack-name <name> \  (1)
     --template-body file://<template>.yaml \  (2)
     --parameters file://<parameters>.json  (3)
    1 <name> is the name for the CloudFormation stack, such as cluster-vpc. You need the name of this stack if you remove the cluster.
    2 <template> is the relative path to and name of the CloudFormation template YAML file that you saved.
    3 <parameters> is the relative path to and name of the CloudFormation parameters JSON file.
    Example output
    arn:aws:cloudformation:us-east-1:123456789012:stack/cluster-vpc/dbedae40-2fd3-11eb-820e-12a48460849f

  4. Confirm that the template components exist by running the following command:

    $ aws cloudformation describe-stacks --stack-name <name>

    After the StackStatus displays CREATE_COMPLETE, the output displays values for the following parameters. You must provide these parameter values to the other CloudFormation templates that you run to create your cluster:

    VpcId

    The ID of your VPC.
    PublicSubnetIds

    The IDs of the new public subnets.
    PrivateSubnetIds

    The IDs of the new private subnets.
    PublicRouteTableId

    The ID of the new public route table ID.

CloudFormation template for the VPC

You can use the following CloudFormation template to deploy the VPC that you need for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

CloudFormation template for the VPC 
AWSTemplateFormatVersion: 2010-09-09
Description: Template for Best Practice VPC with 1-3 AZs

Parameters:
  VpcCidr:
    AllowedPattern: ^(([0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9]{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])\.){3}([0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9]{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(\/(1[6-9]|2[0-4]))$
    ConstraintDescription: CIDR block parameter must be in the form x.x.x.x/16-24.
    Default: 10.0.0.0/16
    Description: CIDR block for VPC.
    Type: String
  AvailabilityZoneCount:
    ConstraintDescription: "The number of availability zones. (Min: 1, Max: 3)"
    MinValue: 1
    MaxValue: 3
    Default: 1
    Description: "How many AZs to create VPC subnets for. (Min: 1, Max: 3)"
    Type: Number
  SubnetBits:
    ConstraintDescription: CIDR block parameter must be in the form x.x.x.x/19-27.
    MinValue: 5
    MaxValue: 13
    Default: 12
    Description: "Size of each subnet to create within the availability zones. (Min: 5 = /27, Max: 13 = /19)"
    Type: Number

Metadata:
  AWS::CloudFormation::Interface:
    ParameterGroups:
    - Label:
        default: "Network Configuration"
      Parameters:
      - VpcCidr
      - SubnetBits
    - Label:
        default: "Availability Zones"
      Parameters:
      - AvailabilityZoneCount
    ParameterLabels:
      AvailabilityZoneCount:
        default: "Availability Zone Count"
      VpcCidr:
        default: "VPC CIDR"
      SubnetBits:
        default: "Bits Per Subnet"

Conditions:
  DoAz3: !Equals [3, !Ref AvailabilityZoneCount]
  DoAz2: !Or [!Equals [2, !Ref AvailabilityZoneCount], Condition: DoAz3]

Resources:
  VPC:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::VPC"
    Properties:
      EnableDnsSupport: "true"
      EnableDnsHostnames: "true"
      CidrBlock: !Ref VpcCidr
  PublicSubnet:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::Subnet"
    Properties:
      VpcId: !Ref VPC
      CidrBlock: !Select [0, !Cidr [!Ref VpcCidr, 6, !Ref SubnetBits]]
      AvailabilityZone: !Select
      - 0
      - Fn::GetAZs: !Ref "AWS::Region"
  PublicSubnet2:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::Subnet"
    Condition: DoAz2
    Properties:
      VpcId: !Ref VPC
      CidrBlock: !Select [1, !Cidr [!Ref VpcCidr, 6, !Ref SubnetBits]]
      AvailabilityZone: !Select
      - 1
      - Fn::GetAZs: !Ref "AWS::Region"
  PublicSubnet3:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::Subnet"
    Condition: DoAz3
    Properties:
      VpcId: !Ref VPC
      CidrBlock: !Select [2, !Cidr [!Ref VpcCidr, 6, !Ref SubnetBits]]
      AvailabilityZone: !Select
      - 2
      - Fn::GetAZs: !Ref "AWS::Region"
  InternetGateway:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::InternetGateway"
  GatewayToInternet:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::VPCGatewayAttachment"
    Properties:
      VpcId: !Ref VPC
      InternetGatewayId: !Ref InternetGateway
  PublicRouteTable:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::RouteTable"
    Properties:
      VpcId: !Ref VPC
  PublicRoute:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::Route"
    DependsOn: GatewayToInternet
    Properties:
      RouteTableId: !Ref PublicRouteTable
      DestinationCidrBlock: 0.0.0.0/0
      GatewayId: !Ref InternetGateway
  PublicSubnetRouteTableAssociation:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::SubnetRouteTableAssociation"
    Properties:
      SubnetId: !Ref PublicSubnet
      RouteTableId: !Ref PublicRouteTable
  PublicSubnetRouteTableAssociation2:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::SubnetRouteTableAssociation"
    Condition: DoAz2
    Properties:
      SubnetId: !Ref PublicSubnet2
      RouteTableId: !Ref PublicRouteTable
  PublicSubnetRouteTableAssociation3:
    Condition: DoAz3
    Type: "AWS::EC2::SubnetRouteTableAssociation"
    Properties:
      SubnetId: !Ref PublicSubnet3
      RouteTableId: !Ref PublicRouteTable
  PrivateSubnet:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::Subnet"
    Properties:
      VpcId: !Ref VPC
      CidrBlock: !Select [3, !Cidr [!Ref VpcCidr, 6, !Ref SubnetBits]]
      AvailabilityZone: !Select
      - 0
      - Fn::GetAZs: !Ref "AWS::Region"
  PrivateRouteTable:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::RouteTable"
    Properties:
      VpcId: !Ref VPC
  PrivateSubnetRouteTableAssociation:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::SubnetRouteTableAssociation"
    Properties:
      SubnetId: !Ref PrivateSubnet
      RouteTableId: !Ref PrivateRouteTable
  NAT:
    DependsOn:
    - GatewayToInternet
    Type: "AWS::EC2::NatGateway"
    Properties:
      AllocationId:
        "Fn::GetAtt":
        - EIP
        - AllocationId
      SubnetId: !Ref PublicSubnet
  EIP:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::EIP"
    Properties:
      Domain: vpc
  Route:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::Route"
    Properties:
      RouteTableId:
        Ref: PrivateRouteTable
      DestinationCidrBlock: 0.0.0.0/0
      NatGatewayId:
        Ref: NAT
  PrivateSubnet2:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::Subnet"
    Condition: DoAz2
    Properties:
      VpcId: !Ref VPC
      CidrBlock: !Select [4, !Cidr [!Ref VpcCidr, 6, !Ref SubnetBits]]
      AvailabilityZone: !Select
      - 1
      - Fn::GetAZs: !Ref "AWS::Region"
  PrivateRouteTable2:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::RouteTable"
    Condition: DoAz2
    Properties:
      VpcId: !Ref VPC
  PrivateSubnetRouteTableAssociation2:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::SubnetRouteTableAssociation"
    Condition: DoAz2
    Properties:
      SubnetId: !Ref PrivateSubnet2
      RouteTableId: !Ref PrivateRouteTable2
  NAT2:
    DependsOn:
    - GatewayToInternet
    Type: "AWS::EC2::NatGateway"
    Condition: DoAz2
    Properties:
      AllocationId:
        "Fn::GetAtt":
        - EIP2
        - AllocationId
      SubnetId: !Ref PublicSubnet2
  EIP2:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::EIP"
    Condition: DoAz2
    Properties:
      Domain: vpc
  Route2:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::Route"
    Condition: DoAz2
    Properties:
      RouteTableId:
        Ref: PrivateRouteTable2
      DestinationCidrBlock: 0.0.0.0/0
      NatGatewayId:
        Ref: NAT2
  PrivateSubnet3:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::Subnet"
    Condition: DoAz3
    Properties:
      VpcId: !Ref VPC
      CidrBlock: !Select [5, !Cidr [!Ref VpcCidr, 6, !Ref SubnetBits]]
      AvailabilityZone: !Select
      - 2
      - Fn::GetAZs: !Ref "AWS::Region"
  PrivateRouteTable3:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::RouteTable"
    Condition: DoAz3
    Properties:
      VpcId: !Ref VPC
  PrivateSubnetRouteTableAssociation3:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::SubnetRouteTableAssociation"
    Condition: DoAz3
    Properties:
      SubnetId: !Ref PrivateSubnet3
      RouteTableId: !Ref PrivateRouteTable3
  NAT3:
    DependsOn:
    - GatewayToInternet
    Type: "AWS::EC2::NatGateway"
    Condition: DoAz3
    Properties:
      AllocationId:
        "Fn::GetAtt":
        - EIP3
        - AllocationId
      SubnetId: !Ref PublicSubnet3
  EIP3:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::EIP"
    Condition: DoAz3
    Properties:
      Domain: vpc
  Route3:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::Route"
    Condition: DoAz3
    Properties:
      RouteTableId:
        Ref: PrivateRouteTable3
      DestinationCidrBlock: 0.0.0.0/0
      NatGatewayId:
        Ref: NAT3
  S3Endpoint:
    Type: AWS::EC2::VPCEndpoint
    Properties:
      PolicyDocument:
        Version: 2012-10-17
        Statement:
        - Effect: Allow
          Principal: '*'
          Action:
          - '*'
          Resource:
          - '*'
      RouteTableIds:
      - !Ref PublicRouteTable
      - !Ref PrivateRouteTable
      - !If [DoAz2, !Ref PrivateRouteTable2, !Ref "AWS::NoValue"]
      - !If [DoAz3, !Ref PrivateRouteTable3, !Ref "AWS::NoValue"]
      ServiceName: !Join
      - ''
      - - com.amazonaws.
        - !Ref 'AWS::Region'
        - .s3
      VpcId: !Ref VPC

Outputs:
  VpcId:
    Description: ID of the new VPC.
    Value: !Ref VPC
  PublicSubnetIds:
    Description: Subnet IDs of the public subnets.
    Value:
      !Join [
        ",",
        [!Ref PublicSubnet, !If [DoAz2, !Ref PublicSubnet2, !Ref "AWS::NoValue"], !If [DoAz3, !Ref PublicSubnet3, !Ref "AWS::NoValue"]]
      ]
  PrivateSubnetIds:
    Description: Subnet IDs of the private subnets.
    Value:
      !Join [
        ",",
        [!Ref PrivateSubnet, !If [DoAz2, !Ref PrivateSubnet2, !Ref "AWS::NoValue"], !If [DoAz3, !Ref PrivateSubnet3, !Ref "AWS::NoValue"]]
      ]
  PublicRouteTableId:
    Description: Public Route table ID
    Value: !Ref PublicRouteTable

Opting into AWS Local Zones

If you plan to create the subnets in AWS Local Zones, you must opt in to each zone group separately.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the AWS CLI.

  • You have determined into which region you will deploy your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

Procedure

  1. Export a variable to contain the name of the region in which you plan to deploy your OpenShift Container Platform cluster by running the following command:

    $ export CLUSTER_REGION="<region_name>" (1)
    1 For <region_name>, specify a valid AWS region name, such as us-east-1.

  2. List the zones that are available in your region by running the following command:

    $ aws --region ${CLUSTER_REGION} ec2 describe-availability-zones \
    --query 'AvailabilityZones[].[{ZoneName: ZoneName, GroupName: GroupName, Status: OptInStatus}]' \
    --filters Name=zone-type,Values=local-zone \
    --all-availability-zones

    Depending on the region, the list of available zones can be long. The command will return the following fields:

    ZoneName

    The name of the Local Zone.

    GroupName

    The group that the zone is part of. You need to save this name to opt in.

    Status

    The status of the Local Zone group. If the status is not-opted-in, you must opt in the GroupName by running the commands that follow.

  3. Export a variable to contain the name of the Local Zone to host your VPC by running the following command:

    $ export ZONE_GROUP_NAME="<value_of_GroupName>" (1)

    where:

    <value_of_GroupName>

    Specifies the name of the group of the Local Zone you want to create subnets on. For example, specify us-east-1-nyc-1 to use the zone us-east-1-nyc-1a, US East (New York).

  4. Opt in to the zone group on your AWS account by running the following command:

    $ aws ec2 modify-availability-zone-group \
    --group-name "${ZONE_GROUP_NAME}" \
    --opt-in-status opted-in

Creating a subnet in AWS Local Zones

You must create a subnet in AWS Local Zones before you configure a worker machineset for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

You must repeat the following process for each Local Zone you want to deploy worker nodes to.

You can use the provided CloudFormation template and a custom parameter file to create a stack of AWS resources that represent the subnet.

If you do not use the provided CloudFormation template to create your AWS infrastructure, you must review the provided information and manually create the infrastructure. If your cluster does not initialize correctly, you might have to contact Red Hat support with your installation logs.
Prerequisites

  • You configured an AWS account.

  • You added your AWS keys and region to your local AWS profile by running aws configure.

  • You opted in to the Local Zone group.

Procedure

  1. Create a JSON file that contains the parameter values that the template requires:

    [
  {
    "ParameterKey": "VpcId",
    "ParameterValue": "<value_of_VpcId>" (1)
  },
  {
    "ParameterKey": "PublicRouteTableId",
    "ParameterValue": "<value_of_PublicRouteTableId>" (2)
  },
  {
    "ParameterKey": "ZoneName",
    "ParameterValue": "<value_of_ZoneName>" (3)
  },
  {
    "ParameterKey": "SubnetName",
    "ParameterValue": "<value_of_SubnetName>"
  },
  {
    "ParameterKey": "PublicSubnetCidr",
    "ParameterValue": "10.0.192.0/20" (4)
  }
]
    1 Specify the VPC ID, which is the value VpcID in the output of the CloudFormation template. for the VPC.
    2 Specify the Route Table ID, which is the value of the PublicRouteTableId in the CloudFormation stack for the VPC.
    3 Specify the AWS Local Zone name, which is the value of the ZoneName field in the AvailabilityZones object that you retrieve in the section "Opting into AWS Local Zones".
    4 Specify a CIDR block that is used to create the Local Zone subnet. This block must be part of the VPC CIDR block VpcCidr.

  2. Copy the template from the CloudFormation template for the subnet section of this topic and save it as a YAML file on your computer. This template describes the VPC that your cluster requires.

  3. Launch the CloudFormation template to create a stack of AWS resources that represent the VPC by running the following command:

    You must enter the command on a single line.

    		 
    $ aws cloudformation create-stack --stack-name <subnet_stack_name> \ (1)
     --template-body file://<template>.yaml \ (2)
     --parameters file://<parameters>.json (3)
    1 <subnet_stack_name> is the name for the CloudFormation stack, such as cluster-lz-<local_zone_shortname>. You need the name of this stack if you remove the cluster.
    2 <template> is the relative path to and name of the CloudFormation template YAML file that you saved.
    3 <parameters> is the relative path to and name of the CloudFormation parameters JSON file.
    Example output
    arn:aws:cloudformation:us-east-1:123456789012:stack/<subnet_stack_name>/dbedae40-2fd3-11eb-820e-12a48460849f

  4. Confirm that the template components exist by running the following command:

    $ aws cloudformation describe-stacks --stack-name <subnet_stack_name>

    After the StackStatus displays CREATE_COMPLETE, the output displays values for the following parameters. You must provide these parameter values to the other CloudFormation templates that you run to create your cluster:

    PublicSubnetIds

    The IDs of the new public subnets.

CloudFormation template for the subnet that uses AWS Local Zones

You can use the following CloudFormation template to deploy the subnet that you need for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster that uses AWS Local Zones.

CloudFormation template for the subnet 
# CloudFormation template used to create Local Zone subnets and dependencies
AWSTemplateFormatVersion: 2010-09-09
Description: Template for create Public Local Zone subnets

Parameters:
  VpcId:
    Description: VPC Id
    Type: String
  ZoneName:
    Description: Local Zone Name (Example us-east-1-nyc-1a)
    Type: String
  SubnetName:
    Description: Local Zone Name (Example cluster-public-us-east-1-nyc-1a)
    Type: String
  PublicRouteTableId:
    Description: Public Route Table ID to associate the Local Zone subnet
    Type: String
  PublicSubnetCidr:
    AllowedPattern: ^(([0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9]{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])\.){3}([0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9]{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(\/(1[6-9]|2[0-4]))$
    ConstraintDescription: CIDR block parameter must be in the form x.x.x.x/16-24.
    Default: 10.0.128.0/20
    Description: CIDR block for Public Subnet
    Type: String

Resources:
  PublicSubnet:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::Subnet"
    Properties:
      VpcId: !Ref VpcId
      CidrBlock: !Ref PublicSubnetCidr
      AvailabilityZone: !Ref ZoneName
      Tags:
      - Key: Name
        Value: !Ref SubnetName
      - Key: kubernetes.io/cluster/unmanaged
        Value: "true"

  PublicSubnetRouteTableAssociation:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::SubnetRouteTableAssociation"
    Properties:
      SubnetId: !Ref PublicSubnet
      RouteTableId: !Ref PublicRouteTableId

Outputs:
  PublicSubnetIds:
    Description: Subnet IDs of the public subnets.
    Value:
      !Join ["", [!Ref PublicSubnet]]
Additional resources

Obtaining the installation program

Before you install OpenShift Container Platform, download the installation file on the host you are using for installation.

Prerequisites

  • You have a computer that runs Linux or macOS, with 500 MB of local disk space.

Procedure

  1. Access the Infrastructure Provider page on the OpenShift Cluster Manager site. If you have a Red Hat account, log in with your credentials. If you do not, create an account.

  2. Select your infrastructure provider.

  3. Navigate to the page for your installation type, download the installation program that corresponds with your host operating system and architecture, and place the file in the directory where you will store the installation configuration files.

    The installation program creates several files on the computer that you use to install your cluster. You must keep the installation program and the files that the installation program creates after you finish installing the cluster. Both files are required to delete the cluster.

    Deleting the files created by the installation program does not remove your cluster, even if the cluster failed during installation. To remove your cluster, complete the OpenShift Container Platform uninstallation procedures for your specific cloud provider.

  4. Extract the installation program. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating system, run the following command:

    $ tar -xvf openshift-install-linux.tar.gz

  5. Download your installation pull secret from the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager. This pull secret allows you to authenticate with the services that are provided by the included authorities, including Quay.io, which serves the container images for OpenShift Container Platform components.

Generating a key pair for cluster node SSH access

During an OpenShift Container Platform installation, you can provide an SSH public key to the installation program. The key is passed to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) nodes through their Ignition config files and is used to authenticate SSH access to the nodes. The key is added to the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys list for the core user on each node, which enables password-less authentication.

After the key is passed to the nodes, you can use the key pair to SSH in to the RHCOS nodes as the user core. To access the nodes through SSH, the private key identity must be managed by SSH for your local user.

If you want to SSH in to your cluster nodes to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery, you must provide the SSH public key during the installation process. The ./openshift-install gather command also requires the SSH public key to be in place on the cluster nodes.

Do not skip this procedure in production environments, where disaster recovery and debugging is required.

You must use a local key, not one that you configured with platform-specific approaches such as AWS key pairs.
Procedure

  1. If you do not have an existing SSH key pair on your local machine to use for authentication onto your cluster nodes, create one. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating system, run the following command:

    $ ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -N '' -f <path>/<file_name> (1)
    1 Specify the path and file name, such as ~/.ssh/id_ed25519, of the new SSH key. If you have an existing key pair, ensure your public key is in the your ~/.ssh directory.

  2. View the public SSH key:

    $ cat <path>/<file_name>.pub

    For example, run the following to view the ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub public key:

    $ cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

  3. Add the SSH private key identity to the SSH agent for your local user, if it has not already been added. SSH agent management of the key is required for password-less SSH authentication onto your cluster nodes, or if you want to use the ./openshift-install gather command.

    On some distributions, default SSH private key identities such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa and ~/.ssh/id_dsa are managed automatically.

    1. If the ssh-agent process is not already running for your local user, start it as a background task:

      $ eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
      Example output
      Agent pid 31874

  4. Add your SSH private key to the ssh-agent:

    $ ssh-add <path>/<file_name> (1)
    1 Specify the path and file name for your SSH private key, such as ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
    Example output
    Identity added: /home/<you>/<path>/<file_name> (<computer_name>)
Next steps

  • When you install OpenShift Container Platform, provide the SSH public key to the installation program.

Creating the installation files for AWS

To install OpenShift Container Platform on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and use AWS Local Zones, you must generate the files that the installation program needs to deploy your cluster and modify them so that the cluster creates only the machines that it will use. You generate and customize the install-config.yaml file and configure add Local Zone subnets to it.

Minimum resource requirements for cluster installation

Each cluster machine must meet the following minimum requirements:

Table 1. Minimum resource requirements
Machine Operating System vCPU [1] Virtual RAM Storage Input/Output Per Second (IOPS)[2]

Bootstrap

RHCOS

4

16 GB

100 GB

300

Control plane

RHCOS

4

16 GB

100 GB

300

Compute

RHCOS, RHEL 8.6 and later [3]

2

8 GB

100 GB

300

  1. One vCPU is equivalent to one physical core when simultaneous multithreading (SMT), or Hyper-Threading, is not enabled. When enabled, use the following formula to calculate the corresponding ratio: (threads per core × cores) × sockets = vCPUs.

  2. OpenShift Container Platform and Kubernetes are sensitive to disk performance, and faster storage is recommended, particularly for etcd on the control plane nodes which require a 10 ms p99 fsync duration. Note that on many cloud platforms, storage size and IOPS scale together, so you might need to over-allocate storage volume to obtain sufficient performance.

  3. As with all user-provisioned installations, if you choose to use RHEL compute machines in your cluster, you take responsibility for all operating system life cycle management and maintenance, including performing system updates, applying patches, and completing all other required tasks. Use of RHEL 7 compute machines is deprecated and has been removed in OpenShift Container Platform 4.10 and later.

As of OpenShift Container Platform version 4.13, RHCOS is based on RHEL version 9.2, which updates the micro-architecture requirements. The following list contains the minimum instruction set architectures (ISA) that each architecture requires:

  • x86-64 architecture requires x86-64-v2 ISA

  • ARM64 architecture requires ARMv8.0-A ISA

  • IBM Power architecture requires Power 9 ISA

  • s390x architecture requires z14 ISA

For more information, see RHEL Architectures.

If an instance type for your platform meets the minimum requirements for cluster machines, it is supported to use in OpenShift Container Platform.

Additional resources

Tested instance types for AWS

The following Amazon Web Services (AWS) instance types have been tested with OpenShift Container Platform for use with AWS Local Zones.

Use the machine types included in the following charts for your AWS instances. If you use an instance type that is not listed in the chart, ensure that the instance size you use matches the minimum resource requirements that are listed in "Minimum resource requirements for cluster installation".
Machine types based on 64-bit x86 architecture for AWS Local Zones

  • c5.*

  • c5d.*

  • m6i.*

  • m5.*

  • r5.*

  • t3.*

Additional resources

  • See AWS Local Zones features in the AWS documentation for more information about AWS Local Zones and the supported instances types and services.

Creating the installation configuration file

Generate and customize the installation configuration file that the installation program needs to deploy your cluster.

Prerequisites

  • You obtained the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret for your cluster.

  • You checked that you are deploying your cluster to a region with an accompanying Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) AMI published by Red Hat. If you are deploying to a region that requires a custom AMI, such as an AWS GovCloud region, you must create the install-config.yaml file manually.

Procedure

  1. Create the install-config.yaml file.

    1. Change to the directory that contains the installation program and run the following command:

      $ ./openshift-install create install-config --dir <installation_directory> (1)
      1 For <installation_directory>, specify the directory name to store the files that the installation program creates.

      Specify an empty directory. Some installation assets, like bootstrap X.509 certificates have short expiration intervals, so you must not reuse an installation directory. If you want to reuse individual files from another cluster installation, you can copy them into your directory. However, the file names for the installation assets might change between releases. Use caution when copying installation files from an earlier OpenShift Container Platform version.

    2. At the prompts, provide the configuration details for your cloud:

      1. Optional: Select an SSH key to use to access your cluster machines.

        For production OpenShift Container Platform clusters on which you want to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery, specify an SSH key that your ssh-agent process uses.

      2. Select aws as the platform to target.

      3. If you do not have an AWS profile stored on your computer, enter the AWS access key ID and secret access key for the user that you configured to run the installation program.

        The AWS access key ID and secret access key are stored in ~/.aws/credentials in the home directory of the current user on the installation host. You are prompted for the credentials by the installation program if the credentials for the exported profile are not present in the file. Any credentials that you provide to the installation program are stored in the file.

      4. Select the AWS region to deploy the cluster to. The region that you specify must be the same region that contains the Local Zone that you opted into for your AWS account.

      5. Select the base domain for the Route 53 service that you configured for your cluster.

      6. Enter a descriptive name for your cluster.

      7. Paste the pull secret from the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager.

  2. Optional: Back up the install-config.yaml file.

    The install-config.yaml file is consumed during the installation process. If you want to reuse the file, you must back it up now.

The edge compute pool for AWS Local Zones

OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 introduced a new compute pool, edge, that is designed for use in remote zones. The edge compute pool configuration is common between AWS Local Zone locations. However, due to the type and size limitations of resources like EC2 and EBS on Local Zone resources, the default instance type that is created can vary from the traditional worker pool.

The default Elastic Block Store (EBS) for Local Zone locations is gp2, which differs from the regular worker pool. The instance type used for each Local Zone on edge compute pool also might differ from worker pools, depending on the instance offerings on the zone.

The edge compute pool creates new labels that developers can use to deploy applications onto AWS Local Zone nodes. The new labels are:

  • node-role.kubernetes.io/edge=''

  • machine.openshift.io/zone-type=local-zone

  • machine.openshift.io/zone-group=$ZONE_GROUP_NAME

By default, the system creates the edge compute pool manifests only if users add AWS Local Zone subnet IDs to the list platform.aws.subnets.

The edge compute pool’s machine sets have a NoSchedule taint by default to prevent regular workloads from being spread out on those machines. Users can only run user workloads if the tolerations are defined on the pod spec.

The following examples show install-config.yaml files that use the edge machine pool.

Configuration that uses an edge pool with default settings
apiVersion: v1
baseDomain: devcluster.openshift.com
metadata:
  name: ipi-localzone
platform:
  aws:
    region: us-west-2
    subnets:
      - publicSubnetId-1
      - publicSubnetId-2
      - publicSubnetId-3
      - privateSubnetId-1
      - privateSubnetId-2
      - privateSubnetId-3
      - publicSubnetId-LocalZone-1
  pullSecret: '{"auths": ...}'
sshKey: ssh-ed25519 AAAA...
Configuration that uses an edge pool with a custom instance type
apiVersion: v1
baseDomain: devcluster.openshift.com
metadata:
  name: ipi-localzone
compute:
- name: edge
  platform:
    aws:
      type: m5.4xlarge
platform:
  aws:
    region: us-west-2
    subnets:
      - publicSubnetId-1
      - publicSubnetId-2
      - publicSubnetId-3
      - privateSubnetId-1
      - privateSubnetId-2
      - privateSubnetId-3
      - publicSubnetId-LocalZone-1
pullSecret: '{"auths": ...}'
sshKey: ssh-ed25519 AAAA...

Instance types differ between locations. To verify availability in the Local Zone in which the cluster will run, see the AWS documentation.

Configuration that uses an edge pool with a custom EBS type
apiVersion: v1
baseDomain: devcluster.openshift.com
metadata:
  name: ipi-localzone
compute:
- name: edge
  platform:
    aws:
      rootVolume:
        type: gp3
        size: 120
platform:
  aws:
    region: us-west-2
    subnets:
    - publicSubnetId-1
    - publicSubnetId-2
    - publicSubnetId-3
    - privateSubnetId-1
    - privateSubnetId-2
    - privateSubnetId-3
    - publicSubnetId-LocalZone-1
pullSecret: '{"auths": ...}'
sshKey: ssh-ed25519 AAAA...

EBS types differ between locations. Check the AWS documentation to verify availability in the Local Zone in which the cluster will run.

Edge compute pools and AWS Local Zones

Edge worker nodes are tainted worker nodes that run in AWS Local Zones locations.

When deploying a cluster that uses Local Zones:

  • Amazon EC2 instances in the Local Zones are more expensive than Amazon EC2 instances in the Availability Zones.

  • Latency between applications and end users is lower in Local Zones, and it may vary by location. There is a latency impact for some workloads if, for example, routers are mixed between Local Zones and Availability Zones.

  • The cluster-network Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) is adjusted automatically to the lower restricted by AWS when Local Zone subnets are detected on the install-config.yaml, according to the network plugin. For example, the adjusted values are 1200 for OVN-Kubernetes and 1250 for OpenShift SDN. If additional features are enabled, manual MTU adjustment can be necessary.

Generally, the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) between an Amazon EC2 instance in a Local Zone and an Amazon EC2 instance in the Region is 1300. For more information, see How Local Zones work in the AWS documentation. The cluster network MTU must be always less than the EC2 MTU to account for the overhead. The specific overhead is determined by the network plugin, for example:

  • OVN-Kubernetes: 100 bytes

  • OpenShift SDN: 50 bytes

The network plugin can provide additional features, like IPsec, that also must be decreased the MTU. For additional information, see the documentation.
Additional resources

Modifying an installation configuration file to use AWS Local Zones subnets

Modify an install-config.yaml file to include AWS Local Zones subnets.

Prerequisites

  • You created subnets by using the procedure "Creating a subnet in AWS Local Zones".

  • You created an install-config.yaml file by using the procedure "Creating the installation configuration file".

Procedure

  • Add the VPC and Local Zone subnets as the values of the platform.aws.subnets property. As an example:

    ...
platform:
  aws:
    region: us-west-2
    subnets: (1)
    - publicSubnetId-1
    - publicSubnetId-2
    - publicSubnetId-3
    - privateSubnetId-1
    - privateSubnetId-2
    - privateSubnetId-3
    - publicSubnetId-LocalZone-1
...
    1 List of subnets created in the Availability and Local Zones.
Additional resources

Deploying the cluster

You can install OpenShift Container Platform on a compatible cloud platform.

You can run the create cluster command of the installation program only once, during initial installation.
Prerequisites

  • Configure an account with the cloud platform that hosts your cluster.

  • Obtain the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret for your cluster.

  • Verify the cloud provider account on your host has the correct permissions to deploy the cluster. An account with incorrect permissions causes the installation process to fail with an error message that displays the missing permissions.

Procedure

  1. Change to the directory that contains the installation program and initialize the cluster deployment:

    $ ./openshift-install create cluster --dir <installation_directory> \ (1)
    --log-level=info (2)
    1 For <installation_directory>, specify the location of your customized ./install-config.yaml file.
    2 To view different installation details, specify warn, debug, or error instead of info.

  2. Optional: Remove or disable the AdministratorAccess policy from the IAM account that you used to install the cluster.

    The elevated permissions provided by the AdministratorAccess policy are required only during installation.
Verification

When the cluster deployment completes successfully:

  • The terminal displays directions for accessing your cluster, including a link to the web console and credentials for the kubeadmin user.

  • Credential information also outputs to <installation_directory>/.openshift_install.log.

Do not delete the installation program or the files that the installation program creates. Both are required to delete the cluster.
Example output
...
INFO Install complete!
INFO To access the cluster as the system:admin user when using 'oc', run 'export KUBECONFIG=/home/myuser/install_dir/auth/kubeconfig'
INFO Access the OpenShift web-console here: https://console-openshift-console.apps.mycluster.example.com
INFO Login to the console with user: "kubeadmin", and password: "password"
INFO Time elapsed: 36m22s

  • The Ignition config files that the installation program generates contain certificates that expire after 24 hours, which are then renewed at that time. If the cluster is shut down before renewing the certificates and the cluster is later restarted after the 24 hours have elapsed, the cluster automatically recovers the expired certificates. The exception is that you must manually approve the pending node-bootstrapper certificate signing requests (CSRs) to recover kubelet certificates. See the documentation for Recovering from expired control plane certificates for more information.

  • It is recommended that you use Ignition config files within 12 hours after they are generated because the 24-hour certificate rotates from 16 to 22 hours after the cluster is installed. By using the Ignition config files within 12 hours, you can avoid installation failure if the certificate update runs during installation.
Next steps

Installing the OpenShift CLI by downloading the binary

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) to interact with OpenShift Container Platform from a command-line interface. You can install oc on Linux, Windows, or macOS.

If you installed an earlier version of oc, you cannot use it to complete all of the commands in OpenShift Container Platform 4.13. Download and install the new version of oc.

Installing the OpenShift CLI on Linux

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary on Linux by using the following procedure.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the OpenShift Container Platform downloads page on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

  2. Select the architecture from the Product Variant drop-down list.

  3. Select the appropriate version from the Version drop-down list.

  4. Click Download Now next to the OpenShift v4.13 Linux Client entry and save the file.

  5. Unpack the archive:

    $ tar xvf <file>

  6. Place the oc binary in a directory that is on your PATH.

    To check your PATH, execute the following command:

    $ echo $PATH
Verification

  • After you install the OpenShift CLI, it is available using the oc command:

    $ oc <command>

Installing the OpenShift CLI on Windows

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary on Windows by using the following procedure.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the OpenShift Container Platform downloads page on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

  2. Select the appropriate version from the Version drop-down list.

  3. Click Download Now next to the OpenShift v4.13 Windows Client entry and save the file.

  4. Unzip the archive with a ZIP program.

  5. Move the oc binary to a directory that is on your PATH.

    To check your PATH, open the command prompt and execute the following command:

    C:\> path
Verification

  • After you install the OpenShift CLI, it is available using the oc command:

    C:\> oc <command>

Installing the OpenShift CLI on macOS

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary on macOS by using the following procedure.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the OpenShift Container Platform downloads page on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

  2. Select the appropriate version from the Version drop-down list.

  3. Click Download Now next to the OpenShift v4.13 macOS Client entry and save the file.

    For macOS arm64, choose the OpenShift v4.13 macOS arm64 Client entry.

  4. Unpack and unzip the archive.

  5. Move the oc binary to a directory on your PATH.

    To check your PATH, open a terminal and execute the following command:

    $ echo $PATH
Verification

  • After you install the OpenShift CLI, it is available using the oc command:

    $ oc <command>

Logging in to the cluster by using the CLI

You can log in to your cluster as a default system user by exporting the cluster kubeconfig file. The kubeconfig file contains information about the cluster that is used by the CLI to connect a client to the correct cluster and API server. The file is specific to a cluster and is created during OpenShift Container Platform installation.

Prerequisites

  • You deployed an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

  • You installed the oc CLI.

Procedure

  1. Export the kubeadmin credentials:

    $ export KUBECONFIG=<installation_directory>/auth/kubeconfig (1)
    1 For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the installation files in.

  2. Verify you can run oc commands successfully using the exported configuration:

    $ oc whoami
    Example output
    system:admin

Logging in to the cluster by using the web console

The kubeadmin user exists by default after an OpenShift Container Platform installation. You can log in to your cluster as the kubeadmin user by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the installation host.

  • You completed a cluster installation and all cluster Operators are available.

Procedure

  1. Obtain the password for the kubeadmin user from the kubeadmin-password file on the installation host:

    $ cat <installation_directory>/auth/kubeadmin-password

    Alternatively, you can obtain the kubeadmin password from the <installation_directory>/.openshift_install.log log file on the installation host.

  2. List the OpenShift Container Platform web console route:

    $ oc get routes -n openshift-console | grep 'console-openshift'

    Alternatively, you can obtain the OpenShift Container Platform route from the <installation_directory>/.openshift_install.log log file on the installation host.
    Example output
    console     console-openshift-console.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>            console     https   reencrypt/Redirect   None

  3. Navigate to the route detailed in the output of the preceding command in a web browser and log in as the kubeadmin user.

Additional resources

  • See Accessing the web console for more details about accessing and understanding the OpenShift Container Platform web console.

Verifying nodes that were created with edge compute pool

After you install a cluster that uses AWS Local Zones, check the status of the machine that was created by the machine set manifests created at install time.

  1. To check the machine sets created from the subnet you added to the install-config.yaml file, run the following command:

    $ oc get machineset -n openshift-machine-api
    Example output
    NAME                                  DESIRED   CURRENT   READY   AVAILABLE   AGE
cluster-7xw5g-edge-us-east-1-nyc-1a   1         1         1       1           3h4m
cluster-7xw5g-worker-us-east-1a       1         1         1       1           3h4m
cluster-7xw5g-worker-us-east-1b       1         1         1       1           3h4m
cluster-7xw5g-worker-us-east-1c       1         1         1       1           3h4m

  2. To check the machines that were created from the machine sets, run the following command:

    $ oc get machines -n openshift-machine-api
    Example output
    NAME                                        PHASE     TYPE          REGION      ZONE               AGE
cluster-7xw5g-edge-us-east-1-nyc-1a-wbclh   Running   c5d.2xlarge   us-east-1   us-east-1-nyc-1a   3h
cluster-7xw5g-master-0                      Running   m6i.xlarge    us-east-1   us-east-1a         3h4m
cluster-7xw5g-master-1                      Running   m6i.xlarge    us-east-1   us-east-1b         3h4m
cluster-7xw5g-master-2                      Running   m6i.xlarge    us-east-1   us-east-1c         3h4m
cluster-7xw5g-worker-us-east-1a-rtp45       Running   m6i.xlarge    us-east-1   us-east-1a         3h
cluster-7xw5g-worker-us-east-1b-glm7c       Running   m6i.xlarge    us-east-1   us-east-1b         3h
cluster-7xw5g-worker-us-east-1c-qfvz4       Running   m6i.xlarge    us-east-1   us-east-1c         3h

  3. To check nodes with edge roles, run the following command:

    $ oc get nodes -l node-role.kubernetes.io/edge
    Example output
    NAME                           STATUS   ROLES         AGE    VERSION
ip-10-0-207-188.ec2.internal   Ready    edge,worker   172m   v1.25.2+d2e245f

Telemetry access for OpenShift Container Platform

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.13, the Telemetry service, which runs by default to provide metrics about cluster health and the success of updates, requires internet access. If your cluster is connected to the internet, Telemetry runs automatically, and your cluster is registered to OpenShift Cluster Manager Hybrid Cloud Console.

After you confirm that your OpenShift Cluster Manager Hybrid Cloud Console inventory is correct, either maintained automatically by Telemetry or manually by using OpenShift Cluster Manager, use subscription watch to track your OpenShift Container Platform subscriptions at the account or multi-cluster level.

Additional resources

Next steps